Homework
by A Wandering Minstrel
Summary: Anna Murphy writes a report. TVverse


**Title:** Homework**  
Characters:** Anna, Harry, mentions of Murphy**  
Spoilers: **None**  
Summary:**Anna Murphy writes a report.**  
Author's notes: **Written for the Halloween challenge at dresdenflashfic lj.

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**Assignment:** Write a descriptive narrative about your Hallowe'en. Remember to include the smells, sights and sounds you experienced. If you don't celebrate Halloween, write about a time when you were in a large crowd of people. 

**Due:** November 3rd, 2007

**My Halloween**

_by Anna Murphy_

On Halloween this year, my mom got called into work because some people got killed and she had to stop the bad guys who killed them. She called everyone, but nobody could come to take me trick-or-treating and I thought I was going to have to stay home! Then she called her friend Harry and he said he could come. Mom didn't seem very sure about leaving me with him, but I said I'd be fine. I was Little Red Riding Hood for my costume. My step-mom made me my cloak and I had a dress with a poofy skirt and apron and a basket. Mom put my hair in braids, but they were crooked because she was in a hurry.

Harry came to pick me up and he had a hockey stick with him. He said it was his costume when I asked him about it. I said that he didn't have a hockey uniform on and he said he was a hockey player on vacation. Harry is very tall and skinny and smiles a lot. He is also nice and funny and he makes you want to smile too. My mom kept talking and talking about where to take me and where not to take me and stuff like that. It was very embarrassing. Harry nodded a lot. Finally, mom left and I put my glowstick on (it was a green one) and we left too.

It was cold out, so I was glad I had my cloak on. It smelled like leaves outside. There was lots of kids out with their grown-ups. Harry was very cool and he didn't try to stay too close to me or go up to the door with me. His eyes moved around a lot. My mom's eyes do that too, because she is always looking for bad guys. Harry catches bad guys too, but he isn't a cop like my mom. He's a wizard.

We met my friend Megan and her mom out trick-or-treating too. Megan was a peacock for her costume and she had lots of feathers on, but she was cold and had to wear her jacket over the top. We went door-to-door together. Megan's mom was flirting with Harry, but I don't think he noticed. My basket kept getting full and Harry held my pillowcase and I emptied it into there. Megan and her mom left after awhile to pick up Megan's sister from dance class.

We reached the end of a street and Harry stopped real quick and grabbed me by my hood to stop too. He was very tense, like Megan's cat gets before she pounces on a sock. He said to be very quiet, so I was. Then something jumped out of the shadows and it had very red eyes that glowed. Harry pulled me behind him and he held out his hand and the Thing crashed right into the air and it made lots of blue sparks. Harry made his hockey stick shoot at the Thing with his magic, but the Thing kept coming. Harry told me to run for help, but as soon as I moved, the Thing came after me. Harry shot his magic some more, and the Thing moved away but it was very tough. We got trapped at the end of an alley and we couldn't get past it. It was sort of scary.

Then Harry waved his hockey stick again and he ripped open the universe in a big black hole. He said to go through it, but I was too scared to. He picked me up and carried me through under his arm. The Thing followed after us. Harry closed up the universe after it. On the other side of the hole it looked just like where we were before, but all the buildings were flat, like the sets for the school play are. They looked like they were just painted there. There was nobody else there, not like it was on the other side of the hole where people were trick-or-treating. Harry told me to hide, so I ran and hid behind one of the building sets.

The Thing kept attacking Harry, but he fought it with his magic and hit it in the head with the pillowcase of candy and finally the Thing got very tired and ran away. Harry came and found me. He didn't have to call out because he could see my glowstick. He said he was very sorry, but I said it wasn't his fault. He held onto my hood after that, so I wouldn't get lost or eaten or anything.

Harry said that we were in the Nevernever, which is where the fairies live and where the Thing was from. He said on Halloween, the barrier between here and the Nevernever is very thin, so it's easy for things to get out and for us to get in. We couldn't go back to where we were, though, because you can't open a hole in the universe to the same place twice. I asked him why he let the Thing follow us through if we were trying to run away from it and he said if we had left it there, it would have attacked other people, so he had to make sure he stopped it.

We walked for a bit, only we traveled really far because distances are weird in the Nevernever. We met a bunch of little glowing people that Harry said were fairies. They laughed and danced a lot and they knew who he was. They asked if he had pizza and they were very sad when he didn't. They wanted to trade me for some candy they had found, but Harry said I wasn't for sale. I let them have some of my candy, though, and I gave them my glowstick because they thought it was pretty. They started to toss it and play games with it and Harry snuck us away from them. He cut another hole in the universe after awhile and we ended up in his shop. He took me back home and Mom came back a few minutes after that. We'd been gone for almost three hours, even though we didn't stay for three hours in the Nevernever. Harry says time is different in the there too, just like distance. Mom asked me if I had a good time and I said yes and I didn't tell her what happened because I didn't want Harry to get in trouble. She thanked Harry and he winked at me before he left.

It was the coolest Halloween ever. The End

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Anna bounced in her seat a week later, as the graded assignments were passed back. She flipped to the last page of hers and read the comments that were written in red ink: 

_C-  
A very imaginative and descriptive tale, Miss Murphy, but the assignment was to describe what you actually experienced.  
- M. Reid_

Anna frowned. C-! And Mrs. Reid hadn't even mentioned the picture of a fairy Anna drew on the back of the sheet! She sighed and put the paper in her English binder.

"What'dju get?" Walter asked, leaning over from the seat across from her.

"A-," Anna replied, defiantly. It was what she **should** have gotten. Grown-ups just didn't understand anything.


End file.
